They don’t get more distinguished than Mr Simpson. For many people alive today Simpson is one of those omnipresent BBC voices of sturdy broadcasting authority. He has been on our screens and in our airwaves seemingly forever. His 50 year BBC career has seen him reporting from an unfathomable range of dangerous and volatile places, at times of major historical significance.

With little over a week until the findings of the Leveson Inquiry are released, on Wednesday evening Lord David Puttnam delivered Cardiff University’s Hadyn Ellis Distinguished Lecture: “The Lessons of Leveson – The future of media regulation in the internet age”.

The address to a Business School lecture began gently enough, with an explanation that the media debate is all about trust. But Lord Puttnam’s words quickly grew caustic, laden with a powerful drama befitting his film producer credits. Indeed these credits rather than media regulation seemed to be the subject of most chatter in the reception before the lecture, Chariots of Fire excitably mentioned several times.

With Christmas approaching and the tablet war currently in full swing, Amazon’s television campaign is pushing its products and services using the claim that it has ‘reinvented normal’. But as well as the online services that gradually seep into day-to-day habits, significant changes in media consumption produce significant emotions. Manufacturers and vendors need to make us feel safe in our spending.